(no subject)

[reallyaduck]

Duck has a Plan! A Plan to team up with Mytho and get him away from scary Fakir and then working together they'll get his heart shards back! It's a great, Miss Edel-endorsed Plan and Duck is very proud of it.

The Plan runs into its first snag when Duck realizes that in duck shape (she obviously can't go leave a note in Mytho's locker as a girl!) she'll have some difficulty getting the door to the boy's locker room open. That's okay, though - Maximo comes out while she's waiting, and she can sneak in around the edge of the door as it closes.

The Plan hits its second snag when Mytho's locker turns out also to be closed. Fortunately, Gold Crown Academy's lockers are as flimsy as those at most boarding schools - however rich in magic gold, fairy tales are not known for budgeting a lot of cash for gym repairs - and a couple of firm kicks from a webbed foot send it flying open. Duck deposits her letter inside, hits the locker door closed again, and leans back against it with a sigh of relief . . .

- and then the Plan hits the third snag, as she hears the door starting to open again. No one is supposed to catch her in here! They'll totally think it's weird if they see a duck in the locker room! Hastily, Duck flutters into Mytho's locker and peers out - just in time to see Iguanadon, who is a very sweet kid with very sharp teeth and a taste for poultry, saunter in.

Hopefully he can't smell as well as Crocodellia can . . .

Comments

[fairytaleknight]

Five seconds later, the fourth snag in Duck's plan arrives. The owner of the cubbyhole has arrived to collect his uniform coat.

Fakir observes the new inhabitant of his locker. The duck looks small and innocent and entirely charming, and the poor creature isn't safe here. Iguanadon is likely to eat it, or something.

(If the thought How odd, that duck looks just like the one I met in Milliways crosses Fakir's mind, it disappears almost at once.)

[reallyaduck]

If Duck were human shaped right now, she would be saying something like "asdfkdljajdjklf!"

Since she's not, however, she just flails her arms over her beak and turns a terrified-embarrassed blue. What is Fakir doing here?

[fairytaleknight]

Yes, Duck, Fakir is occasionally known to appear in the boys' locker room. He is, in fact, a boy. The question is, what is Duck doing there?

Oblivious to the cackling narration, Fakir stretches to collect his coat. In the same graceful motion, he lifts the duck and slips it into his shirt.

Fakir's body language says, No, of course I do not have a duck in my shirt. Why would you ask such a question?

[reallyaduck]

She is inside Fakir's shirt!





Let's repeat: INSIDE FAKIR'S SHIRT!





DUCK. IS. NOT. COMFORTABLE. WITH. THIS.

[fairytaleknight]

There's no reason the duck should be uncomfortable. It's a perfectly good shirt, its fabric soft and smooth from years of hard wearing, and there's an equally soft inner shirt between the duck and Fakir's skin. Both shirts are dry, warm and clean and smell faintly of some sort of cologne.

In any case, the duck won't have to stay in Fakir's shirt for very long. Fakir notices that the duck is wriggling. It probably wants to get outside where it belongs. Fakir strides out of the locker room without saying goodbye to Iguanadon, and soon afterwards he sets the duck down by the reed patches at the bank of the creek.

[reallyaduck]

The duck huddles in the grass and stares up at Fakir.

She probably should just waddle off . . . but she's still kind of frozen in shock. This is at least the second time Fakir has been creepily nice to her as a duck! What does he want?

[fairytaleknight]

He wants, apparently, to toss a few crumbs of bread at the duck.

"Stupid," says Fakir, looking down at the little bird. For once, his tone is less accusing than affectionate. "Stupid bird. You weren't going to find any food in there."

[reallyaduck]

Fakir's face looks weird when it's not all stiff and angry.

Duck looks down and pecks industriously at the bread crumbs. He thinks she's just a duck, right? Who only cares about food? So she'd better make sure he stays thinking that!

[fairytaleknight]

"I guess you wouldn't have wandered in if you knew."

Watching the duck nibble at the bread, Fakir actually laughs. "You sure eat a lot."

[reallyaduck]

"Quack-quack-quack-quack-"

Duck breaks off and scowls up at him - what does he mean, she eats a lot? She's a duck! That's what ducks do! - but the scowl turns to confusion when she sees the smile on his face.

She didn't even know Fakir could smile.

[fairytaleknight]

"Hurry home," says Fakir, tossing the duck one last chunk of bread. "Don't come around any more."

The words are almost the same ones Fakir usually addresses to Duck: Go away. Don't you dare stay here. The voice in which he says them, however, is relaxed, amused, gentle, and when Fakir turns to go back to his rooms, he's still smiling.

[reallyaduck]

It's like the Fakir she meets when she's a duck and the Fakir she meets when she's a girl are two totally different people, almost. He sounds so friendly these times . . . and he gives her food and smiles and . . .

- and it totally doesn't cancel out all the times that he's been mean and scary and yelled at her and Mytho! "No way," she quacks to herself, "he's definitely a bad guy! I won't be fooled just because the bread was tasty!" She turns up her nose at the last bread chunk - so there! "He was only being nice because he just thought I was a duck!"


And that reminds her that if she tells Mytho everything - like she's been planning, like she's going to - she's going to have to tell him about being a duck, too . . .




Her stomach is feeling weird at the thought. Maybe she wants to eat that last piece of bread after all. Just to settle it.